Dr. Mary Kay Allen, a pioneer in AI for military logistics,
died of cancer 6/16 at age 38. She was president and CEO of
Intellogistics, Inc. [IAKE Knowledgebase, 7/92.]

Delbert Yocam has joined Tektronix (Wilsonville, OR) as
president and COO, raising Tek's stock price by $1 (to $21.25).
Yocam was previously COO at Apple and then president and CEO of
Momenta. [Rory J. O'Connor, SJM, 9/11.]

Bill Gates has said that Microsoft is committed to working
more closely with the major university-oriented computer research
centers. Microsoft is said to spend $10M/year on fundamental
research. [Jim Mallory, Newsbytes. CC, 9/8.]

Microsoft has distributed Windows NT developer kits to the
5K people attending Win32. The new operating system will work
on RISC processors, run most DOS and Windows programs, and have
outstanding multitasking. It also requires lots of memory, won't
run many utility programs, and needs entirely new device drivers.
Conversion of most Windows programs will be relatively easy,
unless you've written for the 326 Enhanced mode. [Paul Hoffman,
MicroTimes, 8/31.]

"Undocumented Windows" is a new book listing more than 200
undocumented calls in the Windows operating environment.
Competitors are upset that Microsoft reserved the calls for
its own advantage. This may influence the U.S. Federal Trade
Commission's investigation of Microsoft's business practices.
[WSJ, 9/1. Tim Finin.] Microsoft claims the calls are minor
and that many were mentioned in miscellaneous sources.

Several companies have found Sharp's Wizard to work well
in vertical applications, including executive meeting
synchronization. The Wizard is as powerful as IBM's original PC.
(It doesn't run DOS, though.) Brooklyn Union Gas has used it for
a Basic-language port of VP Expert. HP's 95LX is also popular,
but less powerful for financial applications. Other competitors
are the Poqet from Fujitsu Personal Systems Ltd. and Apple's
announced Newton. [Michael Fitzgerald, CW, 8/31.]

Platform-independent USL Unix SVR4.2 is said to require
only 4MB of RAM and 60MB of disk space. That makes it a lean
implementation, with careful optimization of its built-in GUI
interface. (Both Open Look and Motif GUIs are supported.)
SVR4.2 will work better if given more resources, though. The
kernel is said to be modular, taking up memory only as required
by user applications. [Bennett Falk, MicroTimes, 8/31.]

UniLinx is a Unix information market, similar to the AMIX
exchange. Users will access advice, training, bug fixes, text,
products, and services for the Unix community -- perhaps even
demos, online conferences, and interactive assistance. Vendors
will pay storage and transaction fees. Unix Systems Labs hopes to
start the service early next year, with Peter Watts at the helm.
[Esther Dyson, Forbes, 9/14.]

America Online has seen little pressure for download billing.
It's a business issue, not a technological one: software
publishing companies are not eager to bypass their own dealers.
If AMIX or UniLinx establishes the market, other information
services will implement transaction billing. [Steve Case.
Mary Eisenhart, MicroTimes, 8/31.]